


Company softball league slash picnic

by Zoya113



Category: The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals - Team StarKid
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Gen, company softball league, dad figure hidgens mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-25
Updated: 2019-05-25
Packaged: 2020-03-17 06:37:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18959884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zoya113/pseuds/Zoya113
Summary: Paul and Melissa invite Emma along to the newly made manditory event of the company softball league.Ted and Emma really don’t want to play softball





	Company softball league slash picnic

**Author's Note:**

> People liked the Emma & Ted friendship dynamic so I had a second go at it ! Let me know what you think!

“Man, your boss should just hire me already,” Emma elbowed Paul as they paced down to the picnic tables. “I hang out at your office so much it’s almost costing me my job.”  
“Maybe you should spend more time at Beanies then?” Paul suggested, linking arms with Emma.  
“And miss out on all this crazy shit? Company softball league slash picnic? We don’t do that at Beanies.”  
Paul chuckled. “Not enough people signed up for softball so we had to change it around a bit. It made Melissa happy at least, Mr. Davidson was completely behind it, too!”  
“He seems like the kinda guy to be into weird mandatory company things like this,” the tall grass in the park almost reached up to her knees at some points.  
“Hi guys!” Melissa greeted them before they even reached the picnic tables. She ran forward to hug Emma, a wide smile on her face. “I’m really happy you could make it!”  
“Oh it’s no problem, I’m excited to see you play,” Emma smiled.  
For the past two weeks Paul had been dreading the fact that the softball league slash picnic had become a mandatory company event and she wasn’t going to let him sit through it alone. Earlier in the morning Mr. Davidson announced that he encouraged bringing plus ones and Emma’s phone had exploded with messages, half of them were from Paul begging her to keep him company and the other half were from Melissa who was so excited to be able to invite more people.  
Melissa was wearing a softball jersey and a helmet that her curled hair tumbled out from underneath.  
“Well we’re gonna eat dinner first and then we’ll start! You should play with us! You should see the field, they even have one of those automatic ball shooters it’s really cool!”  
“Sounds fun, let’s go find somewhere to sit Paul,” Paul was already slowly guiding Emma away.  
“You better not abandon me to go play softball.”  
“You really hate the softball league that much huh?”  
The picnic tables were full of miserable looking employees, bothered to be dragged out to another one of  
Mr. Davidson’s mandatory company events.  
Emma had been to a few of them with Paul by now, while the events were always boring he always catered surprisingly well. There were trays of barbecue food and salads and at least four coolers of beer stacked up near the barbecue.  
“I’ll go get us something to eat and drink, do you want to find a seat?”  
“Got it,” Emma unlinked arms with him and headed off to go find a free seat.  
“Oh hi, Emma!” Bill smiled from where he was sitting next to Charlotte. “It’s great to see you here! Did you come with Paul?”  
Emma nodded and hurried to get a seat next to some familiar faces.  
Then she saw Ted.  
He was sitting across from Bill with one hand covering his face as if he was trying to hide from Emma.  
“Hey Ted!” She clapped him on the back with her obnoxiously loud greeting. “Fancy seeing you here!” She sat down next to him, spreading out to take up as much free space as she could with an innocent smile.  
“Did Paul invite you?”  
“Melissa, actually.”  
“Oh we get it, you’re popular,” Ted rolled his eyes with a snort.  
“Well you two are getting along marginally better than last time,” Bill put in.  
“Oh yes, it’s lovely to see that,” Charlotte exchanged some sort of glance with Ted that Emma didn’t understand. “Is it such a beautiful day for a picnic?”  
Bill nodded his agreement. He had finished whatever he was eating much earlier but it left a red stain on his plate. “I might play a bit of softball!”  
“Me too,” Bill chimed in.  
They were both such good peacekeepers.  
“You two should as well!” Charlotte sung. “Wouldn’t that be fun?  
Ted shrugged. He was eating some sort of steak but had lost interest in it.  
Paul returned to Emma, his hands full with their plates and two cans of some sort of surprisingly pricey beer under his arm.  
“You’ll join us for some softball won’t you?” Charlotte beamed hopefully at him the moment he sat down.  
Emma could tell Paul was holding back a groan but he couldn’t say no to Charlotte and Bill. He ate his meal slowly as if to say ‘go ahead with out me!’ But Charlotte had the most patience of anyone Emma had ever met.  
Not many people in Hatchetfield played music anymore, instead they ate their dinner to the rhythmic thunk of Melissa’s metal bat connecting with softballs and the quiet dinner-time chatter of songbirds.  
Emma had finished her meal and her first drink and her second and was slowly nodding off -resting her head against Paul’s shoulder- by the time he had finally finished eating.  
“I’ll get seconds,” Paul had announced but Mr. Davidson had the most perfect timing and was walking behind him as he said this. “Seconds? I think you should play a round before you do that,” he patted Paul on the back and Emma could see his heart sink.  
“Yeah, come on Paul! It’ll be fun!” Bill assured him. “You should play too Emma!”  
“Oh,” Emma begun, looking up at Paul’s crestfallen and defeated expression. “Well, my leg,” she patted her hand on her bandages. “I can’t really play sports. Running doesn’t work out for me much. Sorry.”  
“Ooh, we understand!” Charlotte turned to Ted. “What about you?”  
“I’m piss drunk,” Ted raised an empty beer can. “I’m not gonna be able to hit any balls.”  
“That’s alright, let us know if either of you change your mind! Melissa would be so happy to see you play!” Charlotte always seemed in much higher spirits when her husband wasn’t around.  
Ted raised his hand to wave goodbye as Bill herded the group off towards the softball field.  
Emma shot Paul an apologetic look but couldn’t help but laugh. Paul glowered back at her but his expression changed with a helpless chuckle.  
“So,” Emma edged away from Ted now that everyone else was gone. “Piss drunk, huh?”  
“Not really. I just don’t wanna play softball,” Ted seemed rather proud of his coverup. “Shitty leg?”  
“I could probably run if I wanted,” Emma hadn’t actually tried running but she was sure her leg would be up to it. “But I’ve been at work all day, I don’t play softball.” She much preferred to watch Paul play. He looked miserable off in the outfield but he had taken off his jacket and whenever he would reach to grab a ball she could see his muscles.  
“You’re staring,” Ted called her out. “And you didn’t answer my question.”  
“You asked a question?”  
“Yeah but you were off fantasising clearly,” he craned his neck to see past her out into the field. “I asked if you played any sports.”  
Emma blushed. “I wasn’t- ugh. Nah I don’t play sports. As if I have the time for it. You?”  
Ted stuck his tongue out as his only reply. He sipped at his empty can to fill in the silence. “Hey.” His voice lowered suddenly.  
“What?”  
“Don’t look, but Mr. Davidson is scoping out the table for people not playing,” he whispered without turning to her like this was some sort of spy mission. “We either get seconds or we get out of here.”  
Emma twitched her head ever so slightly to the side to locate Mr Davidson and surely enough he was leaning over his other employees shoulders and sharing stiff small talk.  
“You should know,” Ted began quietly. “Mr. Davidson doesn’t believe in excuses.”  
Emma looked down at her plate, reminding her how full she was. “I’m a plus one, he won’t make me play. He doesn’t even know my name.”  
“That’s what you’d like to think.”  
Emma bit her lip. “I don’t want to play softball.”  
“Well tell that to the boss.”  
Emma turned around to catch a proper glimpse of him.  
He looked as chaotic as ever. He had a wild grin and his skin was coated in sweat. He had been playing softball himself for a while. He had taken the hand of one of Paul’s coworkers in an attempt to lead them over to the field. He may as well of had a sign on his shirt reading ‘I don’t take no for an answer.’  
Emma slowly turned back around. “You weren’t kidding.”  
“I know my boss, man.”  
Emma flinched as a firm hand came down on her shoulder and she could feel someone standing behind her.  
“Emma, Ted!” Mr. Davidson greeted in his deep and slightly unsettling voice.  
He had his hands settled on both of their shoulders with his vice grip. “Are you two ready for a game?”  
Ted put his hand around Emma’s wrist to tell her he was going to deal with it but the motion was aggressive, it wasn’t so much of a ‘I’ll handle it’ but a ‘don’t blow this for me.’  
“Yeah, on our way! Just finishing off our drinks.” He lifted his empty can to his lips once again.  
“Yeah, we’ll see you down there!” Emma grabbed one of the many empty beer cans scattered around the table and raised it.  
“Good, good, looking forward to it,” he grinned a little ominously as he marched off to the field.  
“I’m gonna fucking book it,” Emma hissed. Swinging her legs back over the picnic bench and standing up.  
“Hey! Don’t leave me after I got you out of that!”  
Emma was surprised he wasn’t going his own way but he followed her as she snuck off into a different area of the park where the grass was reaching above her knees this time and looked largely untended to. There was a noisy crunch of dry grass at every step.  
“Are you drowning there kiddo?” Ted asked, the grass only reaching calves.  
“Shut up.”  
“Maybe we shouldn’t go this far, there’s probably snakes or some shit out here, the grass is way too tall. You’re going too far.”  
“You can turn back if you want.”  
Ted huffed, begrudgingly following her now only to prove a point. “Where are you going?”  
“Dunno. Just away from that field. If we loop around we can watch from the other side.”  
Ted stopped and Emma turned her head to see why. He looked upset.  
“You’re just dragging me through the grass so you can watch Paul play softball?! Come on Emma!”  
Emma let out a deep breath. “One, you don’t have to follow me if you don’t want to and two, of course I am! My boyfriend’s fucking hot!” She continued to trek on regardless of whether Ted was going to follow or not.  
She heard the crunch of grass and a resigned grunt that assured her he was still tagging along but he had nothing else to say.  
“Woah, hold on a sec,” Ted reached out to grab her shoulder, stopping her from taking another step. “What’s that?”  
Emma looked up.  
There was a batting cage a few steps ahead, overtaken by grass and weeds and with a years worth of leaves caked onto the roof by rain and wind.  
“Neat!” Emma exclaimed, picking up the pace as the grass grew taller around her. She put her hands up against the netting as if to test it was actually real.  
“Don’t go in there,” Ted warned in a sort of winey voice that made him sound like a babysitter watching on helplessly as their child misbehaved.  
“It’s like, abandoned or some shit! That’s so cool!” She waded through the tall grass towards the opening. “Oh look! Come check it out!” At the end of the batting cage was an automatic ball shooter, covered in rust, grit and graffiti. The floor of the batting cage was a carpet of cigarette butts and litter.  
“What sort of smoke club is this?” Ted gagged at the smell.  
“This is where the cool kids hang out,” she announced. “Y’know, when I was in school I had a gang like this. After school we would go down to the oval and-“  
“Smoke and litter?” Ted kicked the ground, sending a flurry of ashes and candy wrappers up into the air.  
“No!” Emma snorted but failed to elaborate. “Do you reckon this machine still works?” She limped down to the end of the cage to examine the machine.  
“Don’t touch it.”  
Purely out of spite Emma whacked the machine with her hand.  
It sputtered for a second before shooting out a ball that flew directly into Ted’s stomach. He doubled over. “Fuck! What was that!?” He yelled, looking up to glare at Emma. “Why’d you touch it!?”  
Emma tried not to laugh but her attempt was futile. “Hah! This things got great aim!”  
“Turn it off, stop messing around with it.” He held a hand to his stomach like he was nursing a gunshot. “That thing really hurts.”  
“Yeah give me two seconds, I’m trying to figure out how to get this machine to shoot my asshole friend in the dick.”  
“Don’t even touch it, that thing shoots like a gun. C’mon, funs over. We’re out of here.” He was still wincing and hunching over.  
“Aww,” Emma frowned, trotting out to the front of the ball cage to meet Ted. “Are you actually hurt?”  
The machine growled behind them and before Emma could register it another ball shot from the nozzle and hit her square on her thigh. Her legs buckled instantly and she knocked Ted over as she fell.  
“Fuck,” she cursed. The ground was damp from rain and she could feel it sleeping through the back of her shirt. “Yeah, that’s like a god damn gun.” She threw one arm over her eyes and grasped her thigh with her other hand. “God if I didn’t believe in karma I do now.” She opened her eyes to see Ted on the floor next to her.  
“Wow, dinner and a movie first sweetheart.”  
Emma’s face screwed up in disgust and she pushed him away, sitting upright and sticking her tongue out. “Gross! Don’t even joke about that.”  
Ted sat up next to her, he had taken his hand off his stomach but his face was still screwed up ever so slightly like he had only just woken up from a nap.  
“You shouldn’t have touched that thing.”  
“I thought it’d be broken!” Emma defended, prodding her leg gently to see if the wound had reopened. “Clearly fucking not. Holy shit.”  
“You want me to call an ambulance? You want me to carry you or something?”  
Emma rolled her eyes. “I can walk.”  
“Just don’t mess around with that sort of stuff.” He rose to his feet, leaving a wide berth between him and the ball machine.  
“I’ll gonna tell Paul.”  
The machine fired off another ball, slamming into a tree behind Emma.  
She covered her head, eyes wide. “Isn’t that thing out of balls by now?”  
Ted picked up a softball and tossed it off into the tall grass. “Go hit it again.”  
“I’m not going near that thing it just broke my legs.”  
“It didn’t break your legs.”  
“Yes it did,” Emma pouted purely to take blame off herself. “You go turn it off.”  
“Stand up, come on.”  
Emma grunted. “Give me a hand.”  
Ted leaned over, picking her up under the arms and hauling her to her feet.  
“Can you stand?”  
“Yeah.”  
Then a fourth ball hit Ted, hitting his forehead with a solid smack.  
“Fuck!” He held both his hands to his forehead. “Emma go turn it off!”  
“I’m going, I’m going!” She had only narrowly missed being hit herself. She hobbled down towards the machine, sticking to the sides of the batting cage.  
She hit it three times with her hand before finding a switch and smacking it off.  
“End of that nightmare.”  
“We should’ve just played softball,” Ted winced. “Come on. Let’s go. I’m telling Paul.”  
“You wouldn’t!”  
“I will!” He grabbed her wrist to tug her along when she couldn’t keep up.  
Emma yanked her wrist back. “Piss off, don’t you dare!” She huffed. “What’s he gonna do, break up with me? Ground me? Put me in detention?”  
“Oh- better idea. I’ll call Hidgens.”  
“Oooh,” Emma mocked. “You’re gonna tell my parents on me. Scary! How will I, a thirty year old woman ever recover from that. It’s not even my fault I was just exploring.”  
“I told you you were going too far, I told you not to mess with it.”  
“Yeah but you followed me. I’ll tell Mr. Davidson you tried to run away from softball.”  
Ted shot her an equally offended and shocked look. “Bitch! Don’t!”  
“See? Now that has real consequences.” Emma took a large step over an especially tall patch of grass.  
“Fine, you don’t tell my boss and I won’t tell your dad.”  
“Or my boyfriend?”  
Ted made a ‘maybe’ noise. “If you keep getting on my nerves.” He held one hand to his forehead where a big purple bruise was forming. “If I get a concussion I’m blaming it entirely on you.”  
“Can’t we tell them it was something cool? Like ‘we fought a rabid bear!’ Not ‘we continued to stand directly in front of a high powered ball shooting machine.’”  
“Good idea. But not a bear,” Ted proffered a hand. “Let’s say a raccoon or some shit.”  
“A raccoon?” Emma snickered. “Okay, raccoon fighter.”  
Ted took long strides through the grass, crushing it beneath his feet. Emma, on the other hand had to duck and weave and hop over obstacles like branches and rocks and her short legs couldn’t keep up with his long ones. Low hanging branches tugged her hair out of its bun and left tiny white scratches on her skin.  
“Oh just keep up, can’t you?” Ted slowed down for her to catch up to him. “Can’t you just grow a few inches?”  
“I’m trying! I would if I could.”  
“Eat your vegetables, drink milk or something.” Ted pushed the last of the tall grass aside as they finally crossed the threshold back into normal park ground.  
“Finally,” he exhaled loudly. “Let’s go sit back down at the table and pretend we never left. Got it?”  
“Yeah, yeah, I got it.” She pulled a leaf out of her hair.  
The picnic tables were abandoned, between Melissa and Mr. Davidson they had managed to drag every remaining employee who didn’t have the sense to leave down to the fields.  
Emma and Ted walked down the slope towards the fence surrounding the oval.  
Melissa, who was playing as the pitcher pulled the game to a halt.  
“Ah! Emma! Ted, there you are! Get over here!” She pushed her helmet back, it was slightly too big for her head and kept coming down over her eyes.  
“Emma, grab a glove you can be shortstop. Paul’s about to bat. Ted you can go join Charlotte in the outfield!”  
“Shortstop?”  
“Yeah, go stand behind home base. It’s just over by the batting cage.”  
Emma squinted. “Batting cage?” The sight of one alone made her flinch and scramble away from the fence. “Actually I think I might pass, my legs acting up today.”  
“I’d like to add that I’m still piss drunk,” Ted announced loud and clear for the whole field to hear.  
“Woah, heeyy,” Paul looked up from the sidelines, pulling his helmet off. He hurried over, holding out his arms. Emma immediately slipped into them, pressing herself up against his chest.  
“You look like shit,” she told him. “Is softball really that hard?”  
“That’s rich coming from you,” Paul brushed the dirt off her back. “Were you lying down?”  
“Hah-uh, no?”  
“Where did you go?” Paul let go of her to have a better look.  
Emma sighed, her shoulders falling. She had missed watching Paul play softball in exchange for getting pummelled by softballs. She was too exhausted to explain but Ted looked eager to dob her in.  
“Sorry Paul,” Emma leant back into Paul’s chest.  
“What’s up? Woah holy shit Em what’s up with your leg?”  
Emma looked down, the branches must’ve pulled her bandages loose. She could see the angry scar coursing up her thigh. Her leg had bruised badly where it had been hit. “Where did you two go?”  
“Went on a walking trail .”  
“We went two different ways.”  
Emma and Ted exchanged frustrated and confused looks. She wished they could get their story straight.  
Paul blinked. He knew neither of them were telling the truth. “Well either way I’m glad you’re here Em. Let’s get out of here before Mr. Davidson pulls me into another round of softball.”  
“Well that wouldn’t be so bad would it?”  
Paul shook his head. “There’s nothing on this planet that could get me back out there.”  
“Aww, not even for me?”  
Paul dropped Emma’s hands. “You want to watch me play softball?”  
“Purely just to eye you up,” Ted cleared his throat. “Go on, take your swing. Melissa said it’s your go.”  
“You should have a hit, Ted,” Paul handed forth the bat.  
Ted took one look at it and shook his head. “I don’t do softball.” He tilted his head as if to look away but let Paul catch sight of the deep purple bruise around his eye. “Shit, whats that?”  
Emma and Ted looked at each other again.  
Ted scratched his chin. “We fought a bear,” he mumbled.  
“It was a raccoon,” Emma answered at the same time.  
Paul took one deep breath in and one deep breath out.  
“Ted’s piss drunk remember? His words not mine. Don’t listen to him.”  
Paul turned back to the field and took his helmet off. “I’m taking her home,” he announced.  
Melissa frowned with a disappointed “awww,” before turning to rally up a new batter.  
Paul took Emma’s hand to walk her up to the car and Ted followed suite a few steps behind.  
“Bear?” Emma whispered ”You said raccoon!”  
“You said bear!” Ted hissed back. “You said it sounded cooler!”  
Their hushed, aggressive whispers alerted Paul and he turned to catch Ted following them. “Goodnight Ted. I’ll see you at work tomorrow,” he waved goodbye to signal that it wasn’t okay for him to follow them any longer.  
Emma and Ted shared one last frustrated look with each other but at the same time it was one that said they were getting there.  
They would sort it out next time they were inevitably forced to hang out together.


End file.
